Teraco describes this allocation as an incredible opportunity to meet its near-term renewable energy goals.
Teraco, an interconnection hub and vendor-neutral data centre provider in Africa, is planning the construction of a 120MW utility-scale solar PV energy facility in the Free State province of South Africa.
Jan Hnizdo, CEO at Teraco, said, “This will be a unique approach in Africa since Teraco will not only own its data centre facilities but also a significant renewable energy source with which to power them, creating a sustainable energy path to support growth.”
When fully operational, the 120MW solar PV plant is expected to produce more than 338,000MWh annually. Bryce Allan, Head of Sustainability at Teraco, said, “In addition to this project, over the past two years Teraco has deployed approximately 6MW of rooftop solar integrated into its facilities, and this is to be increased to 10MW as new facilities become operational.” As part of construction design, Teraco facilities are built to maximise their solar yield potential.
This comes after Teraco secured its first grid capacity allocation from South Africa’s state-owned power utility Eskom. The allocation from Eskom enables Teraco to connect its planned 120MW solar facility to the national electrical grid. The power generated will be wheeled across Eskom and municipal power networks to Teraco’s facilities across South Africa.
The company describes this allocation as an incredible opportunity to meet its near-term renewable energy goals while adding additional power capacity to a generation-constrained grid.
